Hart’s Vander Zwaag signs to run at Cornerstone University

By Craig Beilfuss
LocalSportsJournal.com

HART–Hart runner Easton Vander Zwaag signed his national letter of intent to continue his running career at Cornerstone University next fall.

A ceremony took place Wednesday at Hart High School.

Vander Zwaag participated at the varsity level in cross country all four years in high school and was a part of the 2022 Division 3 MHSAA state championship team this past fall.

He has also been a part of the Hart varsity track team for four years, although his freshman season was cancelled due to COVID. He has run distances ranging from 100 meters to 800 meters and participates in all the relays. He also competes in the long jump.

In between the running seasons, Vander Zwaag played two years of junior varsity basketball and two years of varsity basketball.

Easton Vander Zwaag with Cornerstone University assistant track and field coach Jason Schalk (Photo/Leo Valdez)

Cornerstone is part of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), where students compete on 19 men’s and women’s athletic teams.

“I have known about Cornerstone for a long time with one of my brothers going there now and one graduated a few years ago,” Vander Zwaag said. “I chose CU because of the Christian atmosphere/leadership and the people there on the team and on campus. They have a great running program and awesome coaches.”

Vander Zwaag is ready to take his talents to the next level after a successful career at the prep level.

“My goal coming into high school was to be a 12-sport athlete to challenge myself and to stay active,” Vander Zwaag said. “It was kind of hard to keep up with school work and do practice at the same time, but I managed and it went well.”

One highlight was being part of the state championship cross country team.

“It was the first state championship for any boys team at Hart,” Vander Zwaag said. “We were told by our middle school cross coach that he believes we could win the state title when we got older. Coming into senior year our team put in the work and was ranked first for about the whole season. We knew we could do it so we all kept pushing forward until we got to the championship and we won.”

Vander Zwaag intends to major in business administration or exercise science at Cornerstone. He has a 3.75 grade point average.

He is the son of Ryan and Stacy Vander Zwaag.